WORLD
Windsurfing didn't come easy for Hannah and Sarah, but they had big fun giving this and other watersports a try during a recent charter.
guage course abroad — where you live with native speakers — can rapidly accelerate your language skills, a stint of living all aspects of the sailing life will give newcomers a first-hand appreciation of all its subtle and not-so-subtle attractions. Put young trainees on the helm when you're blasting along on a beam reach with the warm trade winds blowing and cool salt spray flying, and they're sure to appreciate the magic of harnessing the wind. Explain the simple physics of 'lift' that allows a Marconi-rigged sailboat to sail into the wind, and you'll be giving them a real-world example of scientific principles that they've probably touched on in school. Teach them the rudiments of chart navigation, then ask them to help you plot a course and measure the distance from one day's anchorage to the next. You'll be giving them useful insights into the process of piloting a vessel around the world, plus an appreciation of the challenges faced by the early explorers during the Age of Discovery who were often forced to 'wing it' due to their grossly inaccurate charts. Introduce your young guests to snorkeling over coral reefs in clear, turquoise waters, and you'll witness their scientific curiosity coming alive, as they ponder the complex relationships between the hordes of brightly colored fish and the soft and hard corals that they feed on. In addition, when you make young sailors — even those of grade school age — responsible for specific aspects of running the boat, they'll realize that they're part of the team effort that's essential to making any boat function smoothly and safely. For example, after thorough safety training, if you designate your 14-year-old to be the dinghy captain, you'll see his or her selfesteem rise expoLATITUDE / JOHN
'Total Immersion' Into the Sailing Life Through Destination Chartering You gotta love the photo at right. If it doesn't scream "We're having big fun in the sun!" we don't know what does. And it reminds us that a sailing vacation in some beautiful, sun-baked destination is one of the best ways we can think of to introduce newcomers — especially kids and active young adults — to the joys of sailing. From personal experience we know that taking young inductees along on often-chilly daysails here on San Francisco Bay doesn't always make them instant converts to the sport — especially when they show up wearing shorts and sandals, with only cotton sweatshirts to block the wind and spray. But take them along on a week-long charter in some tropical wonderland like the British Virgins or Grenadines, and they'll definitely understand why you're so enamored with all things nautical. Why? Because for most of us, our love of sailing involves a lifestyle more than simply a recreational pastime; a lifestyle that, when you think about it, encompasses not only physical exertion, but also bonding with nature, stress relief, problem solving, the application of scientific principles, and more. By coming along on a yacht charter, your young guests will get a 24/7 introduction to the sailing life in the best of circumstances. Just as a 'total immersion' foreign lan-
COURTESY THE MOORINGS
With reports this month on Converting Young Sailors Through Exotic Travel, our first-time-ever Photo Contest, a young Bay Area sailor's Trials and Tribulations of Sailing the Abacos, and miscellaneous Charter Notes.
nentially, and that previously disinterested kid will likely also take a greater interest in other aspects of crew work. The killer photo above — which, by the way, won third prize in a recent Moorings photo contest — shows a group of young adults whooping it up in the tropics. Guessing that they're all college age or a bit older, we have to wonder if some of them were initiated into the 'world of chartering' as kids. Because from personal experience we've seen that there's a natural progression for young sailors to learn the ropes from their parents, then want to share the sailing life with their buddies when they're old enough to skipper a charter boat on their own. How can young people afford such a trip? Run the numbers and you'll see it's not impossible, especially in times like these when airfares are cheap and charter operators are offering deep discounts. Here are a few useful tips: First, if prices from the top-rated companies are too steep, check out second-tier companies that offer somewhat older boats for lower prices — after all, a boat